1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of telecommunication test equipment and, in particular, to a modular system for providing a plurality of test functions. One or more application modules are coupled between a front module and a rear module wherein each of the application modules is configured to measure performance information associated with a type of communication link.
2. Related Art
Digital communication networks providing a multitude of services such as voice, video and internet connections rely on transport of information over a variety of physical channels and connection protocols. Further, many of the physical channels are connected to multiplexers that combine low-speed data channels into higher-speed data channels. For example, in T-carrier technology, 24 DSO signals of 64 Kbps each are combined to form a single DS1 signal of 1.544 Mbps. There exists within the telecommunications or data communications network a hierarchy of signals that are described in text books, ANSI Standards, ITU Standards and elsewhere. The world wide data communication network, although continually evolving, is well defined and provides data transport services for a variety of needs from, for example, email, web services, transport of medical images and other known uses.
In order to monitor and evaluate the health of the data communication network or to determine if a communication link of the network is faulty, it is usually necessary to connect test equipment to a variety of communication links or transport layers. When each communication link is monitored to determine if a performance specification is met, then a network provider is able to isolate the problem and restore data communication service to their customers.
One of the problems with existing test equipment is that each test unit is designed to monitor specific types of data links. For example, a first test unit may test data transport over twisted wire pairs and may be capable of testing DS1, DS3 or ISDN service. A second test unit may be used to test for higher speed data links using coaxial cable. Yet a third unit may be utilized to test components of an optical network.
Hence, it is desirable to have a single test unit capable of gathering performance data on various types of data communication links that form the data communication network. Further, it is desirable to have a test unit that is easy to reconfigure or modify in order to adapt to a variety of test scenarios and to meet the test requirements for new data communication technologies.